According to Swiss newspaper Neue Zuericher Zeitung, the Swiss government might be reconsidering its no-bid contract deal with Microsoft which has been opposed by a consortium of 18 open source vendors.

A preliminary ruling around the legality of the Swiss government's decision to allow a software contract to be awarded to Microsoft without any other vendors being asked to tender has found in favour of the tech giant.

The Swiss News Agency (SDA) reported on Thursday, 28 May, that the Swiss Federal Administrative Court had issued an immediately enforceable ruling ("Superprovisorische Verfügung") that stops the award of a large federal government order to Microsoft.

Microsoft's contract in Switzerland shot down by lawsuit .

Software generally doesn't come to mind when thinking of Swiss, at least not for most people. However, two students at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland are about to change that.

Over the past couple of years, Microsoft shops have been increasingly wooed by vendors offering alternatives to Windows, Exchange, Microsoft Office and other Microsoft wares. The competition has grown so fierce that in May, Red Hat went so far as to sue Switzerland (and win).

Portugal's National Association for the promotion of Free Software (Ansol) accuses the government Office of Construction and Property (INCI) of having broken procurement rules after it admitted on Monday that it had signed a 268,000 euro contract with Microsoft for the government's website on Public Expenses, Base, without a public tender.

The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has issued an interim verdict in a legal action brought by a group of open source companies against the Swiss Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics (BBL) for awarding a software procurement contract to Microsoft without a tendering process.

A Major threat to free/open operating systems.